A Family Week in Pompano Beach and Lighthouse Point: The Realistic Itinerary

Here is the short answer. Plan five real activities across seven days, not fourteen. Put every water activity in the morning, because the wind and the heat both show up in the afternoon. Leave two days with nothing scheduled. Pompano Beach and Lighthouse Point sit five minutes apart, so one home base covers a beach town and a canal town with no long drives. Most families learn that on day four instead of day one.

We're Brad and Justina, founders of Yours Truly Hospitality. We manage vacation homes in Pompano Beach, Lighthouse Point, and along this coast, and families ask us for this plan every season. Here is the version we send, with the hours and prices checked against the source.

Why This Is Not a Theme Park Week

Different trip, different math. There is no park to conquer and no ticket that expires. The drives are short and the best hours are early ones, so the plan below follows one rule: one anchor activity per day, in the morning. The rest of the day belongs to whoever needs a nap. Families who run two outings a day here spend the week in the car with tired kids.

Lifeguards at Pompano Beach are on duty seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., and the beach is open 365 days a year. That window is the spine of the week.

Day One: Arrive, Then Do Nothing

Land, get groceries, stay put.

Pompano has a Whole Foods Market about five to eight minutes from East Atlantic Boulevard, with a Publix nearby. Stock breakfast for the week on day one and you buy back an hour every morning. It is why the kitchen matters more than the square footage.

Then swim, eat something simple, and go to bed early. Travel days are not itinerary days.

Day Two: The Pier and the Beach

Start at the Fisher Family Pier, open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Walking out to sightsee is free. If your kids want to fish, the daily rate is $7 per person and no Florida fishing license is required on the pier. Rod rental packages run $27 each and include the rod, bait, a bucket, a towel, a knife, and $5 parking in the pier garage.

Two rules worth knowing. Children 10 and under must be accompanied by a guardian, and there is a three rod maximum per person. The bait shop sells food, drinks, and bait, so skip the cooler.

Then walk down to the sand. The public beach has restrooms, showers, a picnic shelter, barbecue grills, and a children's playground, plus beach wheelchairs. Set up near the playground if you have small kids and near nothing at all if you have teenagers.

Day Three: The Water, Early

This is the day that makes the trip, and it has to happen in the morning.

Pompano's nearshore reefs start in 10 to 15 feet of water just off the beach, so snorkeling here needs no boat ride and no certification card. Go before the afternoon breeze. The water is calmest and clearest early. That is not a preference, it is how this coast works.

Not ready to swim over a reef? Take the water taxi. We point guests to the Pompano Beach Water Taxi for the local waterways and the Fort Lauderdale Water Taxi for a day south past the mansions and megayachts. The nearest pickups from central Pompano are Alsdorf Park, about 11 minutes away, and Shooters Waterfront, about 20 to 25 minutes. For a boat of your own, we send families to HDLF Boat Rentals and Island Drifters Boat Charters, both a 10 to 15 minute drive from East Atlantic.

One seasonal note kids love. Sea turtle nesting season in Broward County runs March 1 through October 31, and the county's program at Nova Southeastern University surveys more than 24 miles of beach every day of it. Loggerheads are the most common nester, peaking in June and July. You will not see a nesting turtle at noon. You will see marked nests, and explaining what the stakes and tape mean beats most paid attractions.

Day Four: Nothing

Yes, really. Put a blank day in the middle of the week.

Pool in the morning, sandwiches at home, a walk late in the afternoon. If the day turns out to have energy in it, Dan Witt Park in Lighthouse Point is six acres with baseball, basketball, tennis, soccer, sand volleyball, a play area, a covered pavilion, and restrooms. All the fields are lighted. It is a neighborhood park, not an attraction, which is the point on day four.

Day Five: Cap's Place

Book this one before you travel.

Cap's Place has been operating since 1928 on an island you can only reach by boat. It started as a speakeasy during Prohibition and is the oldest restaurant in Broward County. You park at Cap's Dock, 2765 NE 28th Court in Lighthouse Point, board the launch, and cross the water to dinner. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 5:30 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. Reservations cannot be taken more than two weeks out and are held for a maximum of 15 minutes.

For a family, the boat is the meal. Kids who will not sit still for a restaurant will sit still for a boat ride to one.

Earlier that day, stay in the water rhythm. Hillsboro Inlet Marine Park is where locals fish, picnic in the shade, and watch the sportfishers thread between the Intracoastal and the open Atlantic. Bring coffee, claim a table, let the kids count boats.

Day Six: The Weather Decides

Keep one flexible day for whatever the sky is doing.

Butterfly World, 3600 W. Sample Road in Coconut Creek, calls itself the place where 20,000 exotic butterflies and birds take flight. Open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with last entry at 4 p.m. Note that last entry time. Families miss it constantly.

Quiet Waters Park in Deerfield Beach is the other option. Its children's water playground, Splash Adventure, is a wading pool about a foot deep at its deepest, with splash pads, fountains, and mini slides. Admission is $6 per person, $4.40 after 3 p.m. Children five and under stay within arm's reach of an adult. The season is limited, so check quietwaterspark.com before you build a day around it.

Older kids? The Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society runs boat tours to the lighthouse grounds on select dates. You join the society to ride, online or at the docks on tour day. Boats leave on the hour, seating is first come, first served, and they recommend arriving 15 to 20 minutes early. Check hillsborolighthouse.org.

Day Seven: The Slow One

Beach in the morning, packing in the afternoon, dinner close to home.

Our named dinner picks in Pompano are Beach House Pompano for oceanfront dining near the pier, The Foundry, and JB's on the Beach at the Fishing Village, right on the sand. When guests near East Atlantic ask for the closest reliable sit-down meal, our answer is Houston's, a five-minute drive or a 15 to 20 minute walk.

What We Would Cut

Two honest notes.

The flea market at Festival Marketplace on West Sample Road shows up in nearly every Pompano itinerary online, including older ones of ours. It closed on June 1, 2025 after nearly four decades, and demolition started in January 2026. If a guide still recommends it, that guide is out of date.

And skip the day trip to Miami. It is roughly 40 minutes each way in good traffic and much longer in bad, and a family that spends a day driving to a city loses two days of rhythm, not one.

A week here works because the home does the heavy lifting. The kitchen for the market haul, the pool for the hours between plans, the yard for the evening nobody wants to end. Have a look at our South Florida vacation homes and pick the one your family would actually live in for a week.

Updated August 2026. Hours, fees, and dates verified against Pompano Beach Parks, the City of Lighthouse Point, Cap's Place, Butterfly World, Quiet Waters Park, the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society, and the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program at Nova Southeastern University.